One million lines to go — and this week's 6 November letter-of-authority deadline decides who migrates smoothly

2 November 2026. Openreach's latest migration update, published on Friday, puts one million UK lines still on legacy copper — down from 1.5 million in July — with around 300,000 of them business premises. That leaves 90 days until the PSTN closes on 31 January 2027, and this is the week the paperwork has to start moving: 6 November is the deadline for submitting letters of authority (LOAs) for novations and transfers of service. Miss it, and the transfer of a line to a different provider or owner will not be processed through the normal migration route.

What is left is the hard part

Openreach is blunt about why the remaining million is slower going: the straightforward migrations have largely been done, and what remains are the complex connections — payment terminals, lift emergency phones, fire alarm panels, door entry systems and industrial telemetry — that need deeper investigation, testing and sometimes equipment replacement. Multi-site organisations with several suppliers and undocumented legacy circuits are the hardest cases. "Unmigrated building systems could trigger immediate commercial building closures and supply chain delays if safety-critical systems cease to function," Openreach has warned. Regional counts show the backlog is everywhere: 250,473 lines in London and the South East, 233,033 in Wales and the Midlands, 207,135 in Northern England, and 112,794 in Scotland.

The LOA is the small document that gates everything

A letter of authority is what lets a provider act on a customer's behalf to novate or transfer a service — and under the published timetable, LOAs for novations and transfers of service must be submitted by 6 November 2026. After that the next gate is 31 January 2027: the final date for migration orders, bulk submissions and provider-requested ceases. From 1 February 2027, new WLR3 pricing and terms take effect and managed migrations to the last-resort eVAC service begin — at £35-£38.60 per month wholesale, before retail markup, for a limited service with fewer features. Orders that cannot complete by 31 March 2027 get cancelled.

Sort the number first, then the line

The practical order for a business with an analogue line and a number it wants to keep: secure the number's future before the line paperwork closes around it. A virtual number carries the business's contact details onto an IP platform, answered on mobiles, desk phones or a softphone, so the old copper circuit can be ceased cleanly rather than preserved on an eVAC lifeline. Plans start from free pay-as-you-go, with Pay Monthly at £9.97 a month including a bundle of minutes and up to 10 forwarding destinations. If the line in question is an alarm signalling path rather than a phone, the migration is a different job entirely — see TAP to SMS gateway for alarm panels that need to keep reporting after the PSTN goes.

Related: The PSTN switch-off guide · WLR3 exception orders close 30 October · Copper theft cuts 2,000m of cable in one town